Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre Gives Al Pacino Keys To City

CBC Toronto & Montreal

Hollywood actor Al Pacino — for reasons not entirely clear — now has the keys to the city of Montreal.

On Sunday afternoon at Montreal City Hall, Mayor Denis Coderre and Pacino chatted with reporters briefly before being ushered into the waiting media room. Reporters asked him how much French he spoke, to which he responded that he knew very little.

Coderre was all smiles as he bestowed a symbolic key upon Pacino, regaling the actor with his Pacino trivia knowledge as he signed for the keys.

Afterwards, Coderre said that he and Pacino — who is in town for a one-night-only performance at Place-des-Arts — had a good conversation together.

He explained that he gave Pacino the keys to the city as a way to remind people that Montreal is "the place to be" for the seventh art, a term often used to describe cinema.

"It's a [point of] pride for Montreal," Coderre said.

"And obviously, I'm also a fan."

The two men later visited the Gilles Villeneuve racetrack to catch a bit of the Grand Prix.